


Down a Dark Path

by Flammenkobold



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Darkness, Gen, Investigations, Paranormal Investigators, Trick or Treat: Trick, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-07 01:07:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16398524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flammenkobold/pseuds/Flammenkobold
Summary: Georgie investigates some abandonded underground tunnels for her podcast. Sometimes not being afraid has its advantages.





	Down a Dark Path

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jain/gifts).



Georgie shook her recorder and sighed. Her brand new recorder, which she had made sure to charge before taking it out for a test run. She should just have stuck with her old one, but this one had boasted to have wireless transfer of audio to her laptop and better settings to play with in the vain hopes of catching ghost whispers. Maybe taking it into the damp, abandoned underground tunnel a friend had tipped her off about wasn't the brightest idea.

Modern technology. Maybe Jon was on to something with his old tape recorders, regardless of purpose.

So far she hadn't encountered anything particularly unsettling in the tunnel though - the half rotten wooden planks covering the entrance aside. Georgie had worried they would give her a bunch of splinters and a trip to the doctor's, but otherwise her adventure had been pretty uneventful.

She hadn't even picked up enough noises to pass as potential supernatural happenings on her podcast before her recorder had decided to die.

Well, her phone would have to do for audio recording then, while she walked down the rusted tracks. She took off her small backpack and put the new, useless recorder into it and then proceeded to fish her phone out of her jacket pocket.

It turned out to be also dead.

“Die on me once, shame on me. Die on me twice, something’s going on here,” Georgie muttered to herself.

As if on cue, her headlamp began to flicker.

“Oh, come on.”

Just because she didn’t feel fear, didn’t mean that there wasn’t the feeling of apprehension creeping up on her. The flickering of her light would have made for some nice visuals. Too bad that her show was in audio format. Melanie would’ve loved to get this for her youtube series while it was still running.

And then her headlamp died completely.

“Really now.”

One advantage of not experiencing fear was retaining a clear head and remembering what she needed to do. It helped that Jon had finally decided to talk and properly share information. She could’ve used it before a creepy mannequin broke into her flat and stole all the fuses, but she took what she could get.

In the dark, something moved. It sounded like shifting pebbles, very faint, as if the person or monster in the dark was trying to be quiet. It could’ve just been rats, but better to be safe than sorry.

“I can hear you, you know? If you’re trying for stealth you’re doing a very poor job, I’m sorry to say.”

There was a pause and a deep silence and then the sound of shifting pebbles returned. This time instead of coming closer, they moved slowly from one side to the other.

“Look, if that is meant to be scary, I have to disappoint you. It’s not.” She took off her backpack again and muttered under her breath. “Especially not for me.”

Even completely encased in darkness Georgie found what she was looking for quickly. Hooray for prepared packing, she thought. “Look, how about this. You leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone to lurk in the dark.”

Her offer wasn’t taken with too much enthusiasm and the shifting pebbles moved closer. “Very well, have it your way.”

She calmly snapped the first glow stick and shook it. The faint green didn’t give much light and didn’t go far. But it did disturb the absolute darkness. At the very edge of the faint light radius around her she saw something slithering back.

“I asked you nicely before, offer still stands. Otherwise there are more where this came from,” she said and listened to the shifting of pebbles. They were further away than before, but again had decided to move from left to right instead of forward or backwards.

She threw the glow stick in its direction and snapped the second one.

This seemed to do the trick. The soft noises retreated further and then her headlamp started to flicker again.

“Thank you! Bye!” she yelled into the direction of the retreating darkness and turned around to walk back to the entrance, dropping glow sticks behind her like breadcrumbs, not trusting the thing to change its mind and follow her after all.

Half way back to the entrance her phone buzzed - a match on tinder. So she decided to switch on the recording function.

“Georgie Barker, reporting back from the abandoned underground tunnels, nothing spooky to be found here, unless you’re afraid of cobwebs and dust-” She might as well get a headstart on her next episode and what better atmosphere to create than with her voice echoing from the walls and the grainy sound of her phone recording.

Once outside she called the police to report the open shaft that someone seemed to have broken into, and wouldn’t they do something about it? There could be rats or god knows what coming through! The police officer didn’t sound too enthused but Georgie managed to play the scared and concerned citizen convincingly enough that the they promised her that they would call up someone from the TfL to get it properly fixed.

A shame that she didn’t have much material to work with, but she would just have to make the history section longer. And hopefully her unsuccessful adventure and a better barrier would keep others from climbing down into the underground tunnels as well.

 

 


End file.
